Hey - a friend linked me to this, as I'm currently undergoing a run of ECT treatments. I think this is brilliant - I've just started attempting to write about mental illness/the hospital experience (this is my fifth hospitalisation) and whatnot on my own blog and I hope you don't mind, but I've linked your page on it because I think this is just fantastic and just the kind of thing I'm trying to do; to demystify mental illness a bit more.

Not sure if you've ever done one on atypical depression, but if you ever do and want an atypical depressive to question, then please feel free.

Just as something you might be interested in, they're starting to experiment using rTMS (repeated Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation) as a replacement for ECT. The idea is that, since rTMS can be applied with relative precision to specific areas of the brain, they might be able to give the brain the same stimulation, but only in the areas where it actually helps, thus sparing the memory centers and other bits which get the side-effect fallout.

I date a girl who had gone through ECT, we started dating within a month of her last session. By all accounts, it saved her life and changed the level of her depression. She still had to deal with depression, but it was no longer constant and rarely as intense. The trade-off was the memory damage, she had a harder time remembering things from before the sessions and could be a little (though not very) forgetful. More, her startle-response was really exaggerated. Any sudden loud noise, and she'd full-body startle. She'd also occasionally just do that, which made sharing a bed a bit of an experience, wasn't easy to sleep.

Graphic Science

Supercrash

Darryl Cunningham

British Artist Darryl Cunningham is a cartoonist. He is the writer and artist on Supercrash (aka The Age Of Selfishness), Psychiatric Tales, Science Tales, and Uncle Bob Adventures.
I'm always available for commissions.
Email: darryltoon(at)gmail.com
Read all about me in this interview.